By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
CITY HALL — Mayor Michael Bloomberg ramped up rhetoric Wednesday against a Florida pastor who plans to burn korans on Sept. 11, saying the act was "an outrage."
Still, the mayor, who defended the pastor on Tuesday, reaffirmed his stance that the Constitution protects the pastor's right to do whatever he wants with the Muslim holy book.
"I said I thought it was distasteful, disrespectful, an outrage and that it jeopardizes this country and our troops," he said, speaking at a school in Brooklyn, where he greeted children on their first day.
"But the Constitution protects it. And you either believe in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights or you don't," he continued. "The government can't stop you from burning the book."
Terry Jones, a senior pastor at the Dove World Outreach Center in Florida, continues to threaten that he will burn copies of the koran to mark the ninth anniversary of the attacks.
Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander of US forces in Afghanistan, has warned that the act could put troops in danger.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has called the plan "extremely unwise" and "un-American."
